USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 9
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A view of the Common in IS17 is given in Shaw's Description of Boston.
The view of 1825, in Snow's History of Bos- ton, p. 323, is without the trees before the Han- cock house, and in the interim the single wooden
July 11, IS75; With a Historical Sketch of the Great Tree. Boston, IS75.
The annexed view of the Faneuil-Phillips house, which stood on the hill-slope opposite the King's Chapel burying-yard, follows a water- color by George L. Brown, painted in 1836, now in the rooms of the Boston Antiquarian Club. Another view of the same house, by Brown, painted in oil in 1835, is owned by John C. Phillips, Esq. A third view is given in Vol. II. P. 523. Mr. Phillips also owns a water-color of the Bromfield House, without name or date,
BOSTON FROM BREED'S HILL.
fence bounding the Common had given place to parallel fences, skirting the mall without and within. The old single wooden fence was built about 1784, and it was so much injured in the 1815 gale that the new double fence was built, the one in the new mall, or Beacon Street mall, being built under Abraham Babcock's direction in 1820. Shurtleff, Boston, p. 317.
The shape of the hill, as seen from the north before its destruction had begun, is shown in the accompanying reproduction of " Boston from Breed's Hill," as given in the Mass. Mag., June, 1791.
The view from the summit of Beacon Hill is given in the Mass. Mag., November, 1790, show- ing the great elm on the Common, the Tremont Street mall, the south part of the town, the Back Bay, the Neck, with Dorchester Heights in the distance. It has been heliotyped in J. W. Ham- ilton's Memorial of Jesse Lee and the Old Elm : 85th Anniversary of Hesse Lee's sermon under the Old Elm, Boston Common, held Sunday evening,
of which another view has been given in Vol. II. p. 521.
In the rear of the Faneuil-Phillips house, and approached up the declivity through a paved court and the garden, was a tall tower, which is shown in Hammett Billings's sketch of Quincy Market, given in Vol. III. p. 22S. A similar view is in Bowen's Picture of Boston, 1829. This tower was of brick, with three floors, reached by a staircase within, while the upper windows opened on a balcony. The Faneuil "grasshopper " sur- mounted the roof, which did not much overtop the neighboring summit of the Gardiner Greene garden, so much higher was the hill in that direction.
A view of the town and harbor from the hill in the rear of Mr. Greene's house, where Pem- berton Square now is, but from a point seventy feet above the existing level of the hill-top, serves as a frontispiece to the present volume. It fol- lows a large picture painted by Salmon in 1816, and owned by W. H. Whitmore. (Gleaner Ar-
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
67
ticles, p. 55.) There are better views of the Greene mansion than the frontispiece affords. One of them is in the mayor's office at the City Hall. The building was of wood, three stories in height, four large rooms on each floor, with an L. The wood-work of the drawing-rooms was elaborately carved, and in this respect' it differed from the Faneuil house, which had plainer ornamentation. Mr. Greene had resided in Demerara for many years after 1774, and had
A southeast view of Boston is given in the Mass. Mag., November, 1790.
The note-book of Robert Gilmor, in the Pub- lic Library, has a view of Boston from Dorches- ter Heights, taken not far from 1795. A view of Boston from the old fort in Roxbury, where is now the Cochituate stand-pipe, was painted by Thomas Cole in 1820. A view of Boston from Chelsea Hill is given in Dearborn's Boston Notions, and in his Guide to Boston.
THE FANEUIL-PHILLIPS HOUSE.
laid there the foundation of a large fortune. In 1785 he married Miss Ann Reading, who died in 1786. Two years later he visited Boston and married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Hubbard, who died in 1797. In July, 1800, while in Lon- don, he married Elizabeth Clarke, a daughter of Copley the painter, and soon took up his per- manent residence in Boston, and here died, Dec. 19, 1832. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., June, 1873, p. 56.
The descent of this famous estate is traced in Vol. II., Introduction, p. xliv. In the rear of the house the visitor crossed a paved court and ascended the terraces to the two large trees which are seen in the view of Quincy Market in Vol. III., p. 228.
The engraving herewith given of the Lamb Tavern is from a block cut by Abel Bowen, the principal engraver on wood in Boston in the early part of the present century ; and use of it has been kindly permitted by Mr. J. H. Daniels, who received it from Joseph Andrews, one of Bowen's pupils. Drake ( Landmarks, P. 392) says the tavern is mentioned as early as 1746. (See Vol. II. p. xxiv.) The first stage-coach to Providence started from here in 1767. Its sign was struck by a shot from the American lines during the siege. Joel Crosby, who had served in the Rev- olutionary army, was later employed here as an hostler ; and subsequently bought the estate, and kept the tavern successfully till about 1808. In 1822 the brick structure in the rear was added,
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
containing the dining-room, etc. At this time Laban Adams kept it, and continued to be the landlord till 1825. Drake says Edward King- man was the landlord in 1826. After Crosby's
The passage, up which the chaise is passing, led to the stables in the rear, and is probably a remnant of the earlier Hog Alley, which can be seen, leaving the main street obliquely (to the
A Bowen:SE
IILE
J. R. Pannunan, d
death (1833) at Leominster, whither he had re- moved in 1808, the estate was sold to Laban Adams, who had returned to it in 1830, and who again kept it till 1838, when he leased it to Aaron W. Rockwood. In 1844 Adams again returned to it, but pulled it down in 1845, and opened the Adams House on the same spot in 1846.
left of West Street), in Bonner's map, 1722, Vol. II. p. xxvii ; in Burgiss's, 1728, Ibid. p. 1; in Price's, 1769, Ibid. p. Ivi ; in Page's, 1775, Vol. III. p. iii; but it disappeared before Carleton's map was made in 1797, given in the present chapter.
THE LAMB TAVERN.
CHAPTER III:
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT AND HORACE G. WADLIN. Of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics.
W HILE not so in popular estimation, Boston is, and always has been, a manufacturing centre. Her industries are as varied as those of the Commonwealth, and at the close of the period of which we write their annual product amounts in value to over one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Her influence since the first decade of her existence has been felt in all departments of productive industry throughout the State, and to such an extent that, considering the amount of the city's productive capital in- vested elsewhere, it is difficult to say what the value of Boston's products really is. Confining ourselves to the territory marked out as the subject of this history, we feel no hesitancy in defining Boston as a great industrial centre, the account of whose industries is the account for Massachusetts.
During the first generation after the landing at Plymouth the great in- dustries which have built up the Massachusetts of our time, in a material sense, were established on quite secure footing. Ship-building, the manu- facture of textiles, boots, shoes, and leather, printing, brick and glass-mak- ing, and iron-working, - industries which to-day include one half the entire products of the State, - were recognized industries before 1650. In all these, after her settlement, Boston's influence is clearly seen ; in fact, it was not till after 1630 that these enterprises possessed the vitality essential to permanency. This influence is well illustrated by the fact that Boston mer- chants within ten years after her settlement exported shoes manufactured in Lynn. This influence has been retained, and may be said to be stronger now than at any previous period.
Although many of the leading industries of Massachusetts had been established immediately after its settlement, yet prior to the Revolution very little progress had been made toward placing these industries on a self-sustaining basis, so that they might become a source of wealth to the Province and afford employment to a considerable number of her citizens. Indeed, before and at the beginning of the struggle of the colonies with the mother country the chief reliance of Massachusetts for supplying the wants
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70
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
of her families was placed upon the household industries; and the Legis- lature of the Province of Massachusetts Bay was in the habit of extending aid and encouragement to all who sought to develop industrial enterprises. An interesting instance in this connection was the patriotic attempt to plant the linen manufacture in 1754, when a law was passed granting a duty to be levied upon carriages of all kinds for the benefit of the proprietors or mana- gers of the linen manufacture in Boston, to aid them in purchasing a piece of land and erecting or purchasing a suitable house within the town for car- rying on the business of spinning, weaving, and other necessary parts of the linen manufacture.1 The preamble to this law set forth that -
" Whereas, through the great decay of trade and business, the number of poor is greatly increased, and the burden of supporting them lies heavy on many of the towns within this Province, and many persons, especially women and children, are destitute of employment, and in danger of becoming a public charge ; and whereas divers well- disposed persons have contributed and continue to contribute sums of money to en- courage setting the poor to work in the several branches of the linen manufacture, . . . Therefore, further to encourage the laudable design of the several contributors as aforesaid, Be it enacted," etc.
Under this law2 the building called the " Manufactory House " in Long- Acre Street was erected. The manufacture of linen was begun here, but with a spirit too violent to secure permanent success.3 "Great show and parade were exhibited on the Common at its commencement. Spinning- wheels were then the hobby-horses of the publick. The females of the town, rich and poor, appeared on the Common with their wheels, and vied with each other in the dexterity of using them." The enterprise lasted but three or four years, the Manufactory House being used for a short time after the close of the linen works for the manufacture of worsted hose, metal buttons, etc.4
The growth of colonial manufactures was not regarded with favor by England, and the home Government steadily discountenanced any attempt to build up such industries here as would tend to render the colonists either independent of home manufactures or competitors with the parent country for foreign trade. It was, indeed, the settled policy of every European power to restrict the trade and commerce of its colonies to the parent coun- try. In this policy England shared so far as to monopolize to herself the raw materials of the American colonies and the carrying trade dependent upon the produce of those colonies, and herself to furnish her colonists with all the manufactured articles or other imports necessary for their con- sumption. It was held in certain quarters that the only use and advantage of these colonies was the stimulation of the industries and commerce of the
1 Province Laws, vol. iii. p. 630.
2 [See Vol. II. pp. 322, 461, 511. - ED.]
3 Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 252.
4 The building was later occupied by the Massachusetts Bank for a time, but it finally be-
came the residence of private families. There was for many years portrayed upon the wall on the west end of the building a female figure holding a distaff in her hand, emblematical of industry. [See Vol. II. pp. xxvi, 511. - ED.]
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THE INDUSTRIES OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
parent country arising from the monopoly of their consumption and carry- ing trade. Before the Revolution the export trade of the colonies was, in accordance with this policy, limited to Great Britain, except in the case of some articles which were permitted to be exported to certain designated parts of Europe, Africa, and the West Indies. The permitted trade with the West Indies was always highly advantageous to the colonies, and espe- cially so to New England, but was mainly confined to agricultural products, and to rum, fish, and lumber.
The influence of the policy above indicated, as well as the high price and scarcity of labor, operated to prevent the establishment of any con- siderable manufacturing industries in the American colonies until the colo- nists had advanced somewhat in population and wealth. The New-England colonies, however, from the nature of the charters under which they were established, were always more or less independent of the commercial re- strictions imposed by Great Britain; and this fact, together with the gradual growth not only here, but in other colonies, of certain industries, as early as the year 1731 caused the increasing export trade of her American prov- inces to be viewed with no little jealousy by the mother country.
In Massachusetts especially the manufacture of paper had begun at that date, and complaints were made to the Board of Trade and Plantations of the House of Commons that, "In Massachusetts an act was made to en- courage the manufacture of paper, which law interferes with the profit made by the British merchants on foreign paper sent thither."1 The first paper- mill in Massachusetts, and it is believed in the United States, had been established a year or two previous at Milton on the Neponset River, almost within the limits of the present city of Boston.2
In New England, also, woollen and linen cloth and a sort of coarse hemp cloth was at this time made, as well as leather, hats, and iron work ; but as the price of labor was exceedingly high, our merchants found it to their advantage to deal in imported goods rather than those of home manu- facture. The increase of ship-building here,3 an accompaniment of our growing commerce, was considered especially prejudicial to the interests of the mother country. Parliament soon found it necessary to place further restrictions on our industries ; as for instance, " to prevent the erection of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel in any . . . colonies."4 Previously,5 an act restrictive of the hat-making industry had been passed. While thus attempting to check the growth of colonial manu- facturing industries by direct restrictive measures, the same object was kept in view by acts favoring the exportation of raw material to be made up in England.
1 Pitkin's Statistics, p. 5. 3 [See Vols. I. p. 497-498, and II. 443-447.
2 Bishop, History of American Manufactures, -ED.]
vol. i. p. 197. [See Vol. II. of this History, p. 462, note. - ED.]
4 1750. 23 Geo. II.
5 1732. 5 Ge . II.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON. .
But, although contrary to its purpose, the course of Parliament was soon to give a decided impetus to colonial manufactures. The year 1767 witnessed the famous duties on glass, paper, pasteboard, painters' colors, and tea. In thus striving to replenish its treasury, Parliament, without intending it, did the one thing necessary to the progress of our industries. The system of taxation of which these duties were a part was, as is well known, violently opposed by the colonists; and this opposition was manifested by an out- spoken determination to use only the products of home industry, and thus avoid the unjust burden which it was felt Great Britain was seeking to lay upon her colonists in America. The merchants of Boston met in council and determined to encourage home manufactures, especially those of glass and paper.1
Notwithstanding the adverse policy of the English government, several industries were already established in the town, and these were fostered by the prevailing state of public opinion now actively aroused in favor of such industries as should render Massachusetts independent of parliament- ary restrictions and the arbitrary duties laid upon the necessary articles of consumption. It had long since been discovered that we could readily and cheaply produce some of these articles of a quality in no respect inferior to those sent us from abroad. Prominent among these, and rendered espe- cially so by this act of 1767, was paper. The Milton mill, already referred to, had made paper to the amount of £200 sterling during the early years of its establishment; 2 and though carried on with varying fortunes, the indus- try had never been allowed to decay. The lack of paper stock was the chief difficulty encountered. The people were now admonished to save their rags with care; and in Boston in 1769 the following announcement was made in the News-Letter : "The bell cart will go through the town be- fore the end of next month to collect rags for the paper mill at Milton, when all people that will encourage the paper manufactory may dispose of them." Glass had early been made in Massachusetts, but the industry lacked that vitality which encouraged the manufacture of paper.3
The difficulties which existed between England and her colonies were soon to culminate in war. Up to this time the growth of the industries of Boston had in no wise exceeded those of the other Massachusetts towns. It was not as an industrial community, but chiefly as a thriving seaport that the place was known. Among her industries at this time was the manufac- ture of pot and pearl ashes, though this had greatly declined owing to the increasing scarcity of wood.4 Rope-making then, and until long afterward, was a leading industry of the town.5 Brewing, established as early as 1637,
1 Bishop, History of American Manufactures, vol. i. p. 202. [See Vol. II. ch. i. - ED.]
William Frobisher
8 [See Vol. II. p. 461. - ED.]
4 Bishop; also Mass. Hist. Coll. [There is in the Massachusetts Archives a peti- tion of William Frobisher in 1768, setting forth his discovery of a new method of making potash. - ED.] 5 [See Vol. I. p. 499; and II. xl,
2 Report to Board of Trade of Parliament, 1731. xli, xlvii, xlviii, 322, 443, 528 .- ED.]
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THE INDUSTRIES OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
was still carried on.1 The distilling of New-England rum gave employment to numbers.2 In 1770 the making of morocco was begun at Charlestown.3
Printing and book-binding of great excellence were executed at several establishments. Out of ninety-two booksellers in the town prior to the Revolution, over thirty had made the binding and making of books a part of their business.4 A type-foundry was established in 1768, not destined, however, to succeed permanently.5 Ship-building to some extent formed one of the industries of the town, and the making of hats was carried on to a limited extent. Many excellent carpenters and masons were in the place, and blacksmiths and other representatives of the common trades were residing there. During the war the foundation of the butchering in- dustry at Brighton was laid by the establishment of a cattle fair.6
One of the leading measures of the Continental Congress of 1774 was the agreement looking to non-importation and non-exportation. It was now resolved actively to promote the manufactures of the country, espe- cially those of woollen fabrics. One of the first aims of the colonists was to establish their entire independence of the productive industries of England by the immediate establishment and maintenance of such industries here.7 The non-importation resolves and the war itself, by throwing the colonists upon their own resources, were to lay the foundation of American manu- factures. During the war, while some industries failed owing to the scarcity and high price of labor, others - and especially those whose pro- ducts were required by the necessities of the war - made great progress, while the household industries were uniformly extended and enlarged ..
1780-1790. The general condition, therefore, of the industries of Boston at the beginning of the period of one hundred years just closed, was that of apparent prosperity. The war was still in progress; its results not foreseen except in the faith of the patriots who carried it on. The influence of this want of certainty induced a feverish state in all business circles, and pre- vented that solidity in industrial affairs which at a later period characterized the enterprises of Boston merchants and manufacturers. At this period the products of manufacture in the territory now constituting Boston, from the best estimates we have been able to make, must have amounted to between three and four million dollars per annum.
After the peace the protection afforded by the war having ceased, a reaction took place. Many undertakings were of an ephemeral nature, and the close of the war put an end to their existence. The heavy debt incurred by the colonies, the lack of a definite and sound financial system, and the flooding
1 Bishop, History of American Manufactures.
2 [See Vol. II. p. 447 .- ED.]
8 Bishop, vol. i. p. 459.
Ibid., vol. i. p. 191. [See Mr. Winsor's chapter in Vol. I. p. 453, and Mr. Goddard's, in Vol. II. p. 387. - ED.]
5 Ibid., vol. i. p. 213. VOL. IV. - 10.
6 Bowen's Picture of Boston, p. 248. [See Vol. II. p. 372, and Mr. Drake's chapter in Vol. III .- ED.]
7 Edward Everett, Address on American Manufactures; New York, 1831. [See also chapters i. and iv. of Vol. III. of this History. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
of our markets with immense importations of English goods, - all rendered the outlook extremely discouraging for American manufacturers. An era of hard times ensued; and one of the chief questions which the citizens of the young Republic were called upon to face was the industrial problem.1 How to maintain our industries already established, and to extend them so as thoroughly to secure that independence of England which, though sanctioned by treaty, was yet seen to be only partially accomplished, - this was one of the absorbing questions of the time. The decay of business - general throughout the country - was exceedingly distressing to the industrious mechanics of Boston; 2 and the Boston Gazette but voiced the general senti- ment of the day when it said, early in 1788 : 3 __
" Until we manufacture more it is absurd to celebrate the Fourth of July as the birth-day of our independence. We are still a dependent people ; and what is worse, after the blood and treasure we have expended, we are actually taxed by Great Britain. Our imports help to fill her revenue and to pay the interest of a debt contracted in an attempt to enslave us."
Arguments such as this began to have their effect. Slowly but surely the industries of the country revived, and those of Boston were not behind. Prior to this, even as early as 1784, the manufacturers of Boston petitioned the General Court for legislation protecting their products. Under the Articles of Confederation which governed Congress prior to the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, the States in their individual capacity regulated commerce; or rather the power to do this was in them alone. The Articles did not confer such power upon Congress, a defect which was remedied by the new Constitution; but before that, each State made such regulations as its own interests seemed to require, without regard to the influence of its action upon its neighbors. "The States through whose ports the nat- ural or artificial channels of trade principally passed, were able to exact a revenue from those which were less favorably situated for commercial pur- poses." It was on account of the difficulties and irritations growing out of these commercial regulations that a convention of commissioners from various States was held at Annapolis in September, 1786, which convention recommended the one that framed the present Constitution.4 The agitation which secured these results was set in motion by appeals from the manu- facturers from Boston and vicinity to manufacturers and merchants in the different States.
Governor Bowdoin had on several occasions insisted upon the necessity of a general union of the colonies, with the power of regulating trade. In 1785, in his first address to the General Court, Governor Bowdoin called attention to the extravagant importation and use of foreign goods, and urged legislation which should encourage our own manufactures. The
1 [There are some notes on the conditions of manufactures after the peace of 1782 in Barry's Massachusetts, iii. 196. - ED.]
2 Boston Gazette, April, 1788.
8 Ibid., January, 1788.
4 Andrews, Manual of the Constitution, p. 89.
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THE INDUSTRIES OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
necessity of regulating the trade of the United States, with a view to coun- teracting the restrictive policy of Great Britain, and of protecting the in- . dustry and labor of our own people, was urged by him on every occasion.1 It is not too much to say that to Governor Bowdoin and the manufacturers of Boston belongs the credit of being the first to take into consideration the expediency of calling a convention of delegates from all the States, for the purpose of deliberating upon the state of trade and manufactures ; this convention grew out of the industrial interests of Boston, and out of this convention grew the one which framed the new Constitution.
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